The U.S. Department of Energy is implementing new regional standards for HVAC (heating and cooling) equipment. How will this affect you? On October 25, 2011 the Department of Energy http://www.doe.gov confirmed that it adoped new residneital appliance standards for central air conditioners, furnaces, and heat pumps. This new law becomes effictive May 2013 for furnaces and is effective January 2015 for central air conditoners and heat pumps.

Three Regions

The country will be divided into three regions — North, Southeast, and Southwest

North — Staes with population-wighted heating dress days (HDD) equal to or greater than 5,000.

The Southeastern region comprises states with population-weighted HDD less than 5,000.

This includes Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

For states in the north, furnaces are the bigget challenge. After May 2013 we’ll no longer be able to install the 80% efficient unit which vent out in metal piping or through a chimney. Instead we’ll be required to have an AFUE (efficiency) of 90% or more, and will be required to vent the unit horizontally using PVC piping to the outdoors. You will only be able to upgrade your current unit through April 2013, and distributors have already informed us they are limited the number of 80% efficient units they’ll have on hand, incresingly, so they don’t have ‘dead’ stock at the end of the spring of 2013.

According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) the deadlines are as follows:

Implementation Time Table

The new standards will take effect May 2013 for non-weatherized furnaces, and January 2015 for air conditioners, heat pumps, and weatherized furnaces.

The effective dates for standards that follow the standards above will be:

January 1, 2019 for non-weatherized furnaces

January 1, 2022 for air conditioners, heat pumps, and weatherized furnaces (gas-packs).